THE WHEELER DEALERS
US, 1963, 107 minutes, Colour.
James Garner, Lee Remick, Phil Harris, Chill Wills, Jim Backus, John Astin.
Directed by Arthur Hiller.
The Wheeler Dealers is an entertaining comedy about finance, directed by Arthur Hiller at the beginning of his career – seven years later he was to make Love Story.
James Garner had been appearing in films and television for some years, especially in his role as Brett Maverick. He has no trouble in playing a conman in this film, Ivy League educated but playing dumb and raising money to go to Texas to lure oil tycoons to invest with him. He meets an analyst played by Lee Remick and they fall in love.
A group of veterans, Phil Harris, Chill Wills, Jim Backus play the oil-wealthy Texans.
It has been remarked that this is a film for entrepreneurs anonymous. Audiences will enjoy the intricacies of the wheeler dealing – all presented in a rapid-fire way as well as with overtones of old-time screwball comedies.
James Garner and Lee Remick are perfect in the roles – and the film, even after a number of decades, especially in the light of the 1980s and later wheelings and dealings with the stock market, quite interesting and enjoyable.
1. Was this a good comedy? successful in its zany situation and plot? Its wit? Its portrayal of the United States and its American characters?
2. How valid was it to have a satire on money and capitalism? how successful was the satire and the parody?
3. The meaning of the title, its unsavoury tone and implications? Do audiences like wheeler-dealers? Do they like their deals and dislike the people? How did the film play on audience fascination with smart wheeler dealing?
4. How well did the film communicate the details of deals, tax evasions, the big financial implications? Why do these things fascinate audiences? Audience greed and fantasy? did the film utilise this and poke fun at it?
5. How well did James Garner suit the central role of a dealer? The Texas awkward style and twang? The name of his deals, exploiting oil, paintings? The truth of his background and his pose as part of his dealing? The moral implications of his wheeler dealing? The letter of the 1aw? His relationship with the other Texans? With Stanislaus the artist? How did he co-operate with Molly and then clash with her? Molly as a challenge to his wheeler dealing?
6. How humorous were the Texan group who followed Henry? Their financial deals? Their Texan style, yet their living in a plane? The humour of the sauna bath in the plane etc.? Their role as fairy godmothers trying to arrange marriages?
7. How attractive a heroine was Molly Thatcher? Her self-assertion, her attitude towards men, her role on Wall Street, (the satire on men’s attitudes towards women on Wall Street?) her presidency of the association, her victimisation in her job, her relationship with Leonard, her contrast with Eloise in the flat, her involvement in deals with Henry, the Widget project, the emotional response) the clash with work and love, the crisis for her and its impact on her?
8. The humour in Molly’s taking Henry to a fancy restaurant and his reaction? And then buying it? The same with the Widgets and Henry's enterprise in visiting the Widget owners? The exploitation of the Widgets by the science paragraph?
9. The satire on modern art with Stanislaw, the exhibition, the paid weeper, Henry's exploiting of an art collection, his speech to the lady critic? Stanislaus riding a bike to do his painting etc.?
10. The importance of the crisis in showing the possibility of bankruptcy? The technique of using the paper headlines?
11. How humorous was the trial? The real point behind it? The importance of the agency and the fanatical pursuit of the crooks? The disappointment of the prosecutor?
12. Was the happy ending suitable for this film?
13. How successful a satire was it? How humorous a comedy? The pungency of the lines? Its exploration of modern America and its attitutudes? values that it stood for?
